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Breeding question

judmichaels Feb 10, 2007 10:49 AM

I am new to breeding and trying to get some things down. I have what I was told to be a male 100% het for albino? How do they know this? And, say I breed him with a normal female, is there a good chance of an albino male offspring? Or if I breed two 100%'s together am I almost guaranteed an albino? Thanks for your help.
(don't be too critical of my lack of knowledge! lol
Jud Michaels

Replies (6)

judmichaels Feb 10, 2007 10:50 AM

by the way, didnt mean to type "good chance for an albino male", just meant albino offspring

louie1 Feb 10, 2007 11:58 AM

100% het for albino means this carries the albino gene but does not display it. You can get 100% het albinos by breeding an albino to either normal or het.

Breeding a 100% het albino to normal will give you 50% albino hets and 50% normals. All offspring will look the same therefore ALL offspring will be considered 50% possible hets until proven.

Proven means they would need to produce albinos in the future. The best way to prove this out will be to breed it to an albino. If an albino pops out then that particular hog no longer is 50% possible het it is now considered 100% het.

It took me a few times to look at a couple of different explinations to clear things up.

Hope this helps.
-----
Louie

judmichaels Feb 10, 2007 12:04 PM

ah, now I think I have it....Just need to breed him with an albino female?(if he is 100% het)
Don't albino's go for $900 or some crazy ish like that?
Can't see me buying one of those anytime soon.
thanks for your reply

aliceinwl Feb 10, 2007 04:06 PM

You could also breed him to a 100% het albino female. If you were to do this, statistically 1 in 4 babies should end up as an albino, 2 out of 4 will be het albinos and 1 out of four will be normal. You will not be able to differentiate the normals from the hets. Normal looking babies from this type of pairing are typically sold as 66% hets in that they have a 66% chance of carrying the albino gene.

To help you undersatnd this a bit better, you can diagram it out: your male has two copies of the gene that affects melanin formation, one from each of his parents. One of these genes (we'll call it "A" ) is normal and dominant. The other (we'll call it "a" ) is defective and recessive (recessive genes are denoted by lower case letters). By defective, I mean that this gene does not allow for the production of melanin (dark pigment).

Since your male is Aa he appears normal. When he breeds his sperm will only carry one copy of the melanin gene so his offspring will have a 50% chance of getting the "A" and a 50% chance of getting the "a".

If you breed him to a normal female: AA all she will be able to give her offspring will be "A".

You can diagram it like this to figure out the probabilities:

The center four combos represent the genetics of the offspring from such a cross. They have a 50% chance of carrying the albino gene (being Aa) a 50% chance of not carring it (being AA). Since all will look normal you won't be able to figure out who has what gene until you can breed them. These babies would be marketed as 50% hets.

If you breed him to a het female: Aa she will be able to give her offspring "A" or "a".

The baby who gets aa will have two copies of the defective melanin gene and will be an albino. The other three will appear normal and will have a 2 out of 3 chance of carrying the albino gene: being Aa. These would be sold as 66% hets.

If you breed him to an albino female: aa she will only be able to give her offspring "a".

Half of the babies would be albinos: aa and half would be hets: Aa. The normal looking babies from this cross would therefore be sold as 100% hets. Your male would have been produced from such a cross.

Hope this helps,
Alice

judmichaels Feb 10, 2007 04:16 PM

Yeah that helps a lot. Do you know anyone selling adult breeders? They can be normal, I just want a breeding pair, I have a male that is 15 1/2 inches. My female is way too young though. Looking for an adult female
thanks
can email at judbengalsfan@yahoo.com

aliceinwl Feb 10, 2007 08:09 PM

Check out the other snake classifieds: http://market.kingsnake.com/index.php?cat=6 There is someone on there in California selling a 1:1 pair with a 21" female.

-Alice

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